So Long Term Care Insurance is a Solution to the health care crisis? Think again….

If you think private long term care insurance is the answer to the future crisis in providing and funding long term care for aging boomers, you’re just not paying attention.  Here’s a list of “uninsurable conditions” included on the website of one private LTCI provider, who tells its partners “This list of uninsurable conditions has been created to assist you with prescreening prior to referring a proposed insured to a Long Term Care Insurance Specialist.”

•    Do not refer anyone who currently:

    •    Requires assistance with any one of the six activities of daily living (bathing, dressing, feeding, toileting, continence, transferring from bed to chair)
    •    Requires assistance with any basic activity of daily living (e.g. grocery shopping, use of transportation, use of telephone, banking)
    •    Uses care services (e.g. home health, nursing home or adult day care)
    •    Uses a walker, multi-pronged cane, crutches, or wheelchair

•    Do not refer anyone who has experienced:

    •    Alcohol and/or drug abuse within the last 36 months
    •    A heart attack within the last 12 months
    •    A stroke, transient ischemic attack or mini-stroke within the last 24 months

•    Do not refer anyone who currently or has ever had:

    •    AIDs or HIV infection    
    •    Alzheimer’s disease
    •    Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS)
    •    Cystic Fibrosis
    •    Dementia
    •    Diabetes – treated with insulin or diagnosed more than 5 years ago
    •    Hemophilia (other than Von Willebrand disease)
    •    Hepatitis C, Non-A, Non-B, or Autoimmune
    •    Kidney failure
    •    Liver Cirrhosis
    •    Memory loss
    •    Multiple Sclerosis
    •    Muscular Dystrophy
    •    Paralysis
    •    Parkinson’s disease
    •    Post polio syndrome
    •    Schizophrenia
    •    Sickle Cell Anemia
    •    Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

I wonder what they might say about warts and pimples?